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Jan 8, 2013
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he said recently he is against the shifting of military power to the cia, treating cia effectively as an air force. he says a lot of the drone strikes should be carried out by the military, under traditional military authority so we're not doing this exotic extra legal stuff. those policies that he says he favors haven't been enacted by him. and he doesn't seem to argue for them publicly in a way that makes them happen. how should we interpret that as he is being considered for this big job now? >> i'm not exactly sure how that is going to evolve, because the cia clearly has been running the drone war. has taken on more and more of the apparatus and the policies and decision-making that formally had been with the pentagon. and it has been a cia mission, as you know, in large parts of pakistan and yemen and other places. so seeing how john brennan now in his new perch, if he is confirmed, and he was a career, 25-year career person at the cia and today they are welcoming him home if he gets confirmed, it's going to be very interesting to see how he decides to rebalance that, and whether
he said recently he is against the shifting of military power to the cia, treating cia effectively as an air force. he says a lot of the drone strikes should be carried out by the military, under traditional military authority so we're not doing this exotic extra legal stuff. those policies that he says he favors haven't been enacted by him. and he doesn't seem to argue for them publicly in a way that makes them happen. how should we interpret that as he is being considered for this big job...
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Jan 8, 2013
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john brennan had been a career cia figure. he had served as chief of staff to george tenet when george tenet under george bush developed their torture and secret prison program. john brennan's association with the torture and secret prison program of the george bush era of the cia is what sunk his chances for being picked as director of the cia at the start of the obama presidency. it's kind of weird. it's almost a foreign concept in american modern politics that the left might block something from happening, but it's true. liberals thought obama stopping the torture program wasn't enough. that people tarred by association with that program should not be promoted, that there should be political accountability for people who were close to the torture policy. liberals raised enough noise
john brennan had been a career cia figure. he had served as chief of staff to george tenet when george tenet under george bush developed their torture and secret prison program. john brennan's association with the torture and secret prison program of the george bush era of the cia is what sunk his chances for being picked as director of the cia at the start of the obama presidency. it's kind of weird. it's almost a foreign concept in american modern politics that the left might block something...
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Jan 11, 2013
01/13
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because he knows then he'll have a cia director in press who will acquiesce to the cia losing that particular job of running all our flying killing robots and never having to answer for it. the critique from the left on president obama on national security and there's a lot of them, you go into any level of detail on any one of them, but the big ones are one he hasn't closed guantanamo although we know he is trying to do that and it is congress who blocked him. two that we are still in afghanistan in big numbers. we shall see how quickly we get out there have when he comes one his recommendations for the speed of the drawdown. but there is also this third thing. that the wholesale embrace of the secretive pseudolegal deniable, orwellian means of raining death from the sky all over the world even in places where we're not technically at war and never admitting to it. does president obama appointing john brennan to run the cia mean that he does care about that critique from the left? or is it the opposite? by promoting the architect of the drone program we've got now is this a punch the hippie
because he knows then he'll have a cia director in press who will acquiesce to the cia losing that particular job of running all our flying killing robots and never having to answer for it. the critique from the left on president obama on national security and there's a lot of them, you go into any level of detail on any one of them, but the big ones are one he hasn't closed guantanamo although we know he is trying to do that and it is congress who blocked him. two that we are still in...
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Jan 26, 2013
01/13
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that is why john brennan didn't get the nomination to run the cia in the first time around. so his confirmation hearings this time around, february 7th, should be very interested. there is controversy there. the other nomination, where there used to be suspense, is former republican senator chuck hagel, i say there used to be suspense, because there were questions about whether there would be fight from the left have dried up. chris coombs, all have met with mr. hagel this week, he assuaged their worries, ditto, charles schumer, of new york, he addressed criticism of his hard-line anti-gay and anti-abortion political past. he addressed that criticism, where they largely neutralized it. ahead of his confirmation hearings on thursday, republicans are making noises about chuck hagel. the only strange remaining might be evidence of any interesting and therefore important resistance to chuck hagel is probably this ad, you might have seen from an unknown group called "use your mandate." >> chuck hagel, he has been nominated to be secretary of defense. and president obama nominated
that is why john brennan didn't get the nomination to run the cia in the first time around. so his confirmation hearings this time around, february 7th, should be very interested. there is controversy there. the other nomination, where there used to be suspense, is former republican senator chuck hagel, i say there used to be suspense, because there were questions about whether there would be fight from the left have dried up. chris coombs, all have met with mr. hagel this week, he assuaged...
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Jan 24, 2013
01/13
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and even if we did know how big the intelligence budget was for the cia and the rest of the intelligence community in this country, rest assured that the only political impact of knowing that number is that someone in congress would insist that we double that number. the united states military has a budget so gargantuan that it roughly approximates the military budgets of all of our conceivable adversaries and major allies combined. the state department is the only part of the u.s. government that fields high-level personnel doing high security, high tension work in highly sensitive places around the globe alongside the intelligence and the military, except they, the state department employees are the ones who have to do it on a shoestring budget, whose budget and resources are minuscule in comparison and under pressure, under pressure compared to the other ways that americans serve long-terms abroad in dangerous places. the best hope for the state department ever getting its due in washington, ever upscaling its profile and its respect and its resources in washington was probably to put
and even if we did know how big the intelligence budget was for the cia and the rest of the intelligence community in this country, rest assured that the only political impact of knowing that number is that someone in congress would insist that we double that number. the united states military has a budget so gargantuan that it roughly approximates the military budgets of all of our conceivable adversaries and major allies combined. the state department is the only part of the u.s. government...
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Jan 19, 2013
01/13
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these places are not field offices of the nsa or the cia or some cagey private military contractor. these are medical offices. this is the way that medicine is being practiced in one small segment of the medical field. it is unlike anything else in american medicine, unlike any other part of american life that is not corrections or intelligence. but it is how you live if you are an abortion provider in a part of the country where aggressive hostility to abortion rights sometimes manifests as violence. these are not temporary security measures people adopt during a lockdown or at a particular time of crisis. this is day-to-day, everyday life. it is a very strange way to live or work. there are four states in this country where there is only one abortion clinic in the whole state, including mississippi, which as we discussed, is possibly becoming the first state where abortion access is, effectively, gone. it turns out that makes your one medical office and, therefore, the women who seek medical care there, it makes them easy targets for people who would like to end abortion in that s
these places are not field offices of the nsa or the cia or some cagey private military contractor. these are medical offices. this is the way that medicine is being practiced in one small segment of the medical field. it is unlike anything else in american medicine, unlike any other part of american life that is not corrections or intelligence. but it is how you live if you are an abortion provider in a part of the country where aggressive hostility to abortion rights sometimes manifests as...
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Jan 16, 2013
01/13
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a cia report that saddam had imported aluminum tubes that could be used in centrifuges to enrich uranium to make nuclear weapons that exciting little piece of data, which proved to be out of context and not true. that's not what the tubes were for. that nevertheless ended up on the front page of the "new york times." it had been leaked to "the new york times" by people inside the bush administration who had access to raw bits of out of context intel like that. recognizing that that sort of thing sounded really scary, they plucked it out of context, didn't check it for accuracy, leaked it to "the new york times," and then cited the fact that it had been in "the new york times" as evidence that the scary claim was out there and should be added to the case for going to war. >> specifically, aluminum tubes, there is a story in "the new york times" this morning. this is -- and i want to attribute the times. i don't want to talk about obviously specific intelligence sources. but it's now public that in fact he has been seeking to acquire, and we have been able to intercept and prevent him from
a cia report that saddam had imported aluminum tubes that could be used in centrifuges to enrich uranium to make nuclear weapons that exciting little piece of data, which proved to be out of context and not true. that's not what the tubes were for. that nevertheless ended up on the front page of the "new york times." it had been leaked to "the new york times" by people inside the bush administration who had access to raw bits of out of context intel like that. recognizing...